the younger generation in Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm.” Lesson plan on the topic: “life and customs of the “dark kingdom.” the younger generation in Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm, Everyday Manners in the Dark Kingdom”

Lesson plan on the topic: « LIFE AND MORES OF THE “DARK KINGDOM”. YOUNG
GENERATION IN OSTROVSKY’S PLAY “THUNDERSTORM”

Goals: help to comprehend the images of Dikiy and Kabanova created by the author, their morality, which affirms the right of the strong, the right to tyranny and “trample” those who are weaker and more helpless, who think and live differently; show the inevitability of the collapse of the “dark kingdom”; note the characteristic features of representatives of the younger generation in Ostrovsky’s play.

Progress of lessons

I. Teacher's opening speech.

LIFE AND MORES OF THE “DARK KINGDOM”

The critic N.A. Dobrolyubov called the world depicted by the playwright a “dark kingdom.”

Dikoy and Kabanikha are typical representatives of the “dark kingdom”. These are human predators.

Conversation with studentsissues:

1. What did Dobrolyubov mean by the “dark kingdom”? What are its main features?

2. What does the word “tyrant” mean?

3. How does Dikoy understand the expression “go out into public”?

4. What is the reason for the unbridled tyranny of the Wild?

5. How does he feel about Kabanikha, Boris, Kuligin?

6. Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova. What is her attitude to the “new order”?

7. How does she relate to Katerina, Tikhon, Varvara?

8. Are tyrants confident in the limitlessness of their power?

9. What are the similarities and differences between the characters of the Wild and Kabanikha?

10. Describe the speech, manner of speaking, and communication of Dikiy and Kabanova. Give examples.

Wild Savel Prokofich - “shrill man”, “scolder”, “tyrant”, which meanswild, tough at heart, powerful man .

The power of money is the basis of tyranny. The purpose of Wild’s life is to get rich, and there are all sorts of ways to get rich: cheating workers, robbing neighbors, not paying inherited money.

Rudeness, ignorance, abuse, swearing are familiar to the Wild, moreover, this is the content of his life, this is also a defense against everything incomprehensible and hostile. Kudryash about Dikiy: “Like he broke the chain!” The passion for swearing is even stronger if they ask him for money.

Kabanova Marfa Ignatievna - the embodiment of despotism, covered with hypocrisy. Kuligin about her: “Prudence, sir! He gives money to the poor, but completely eats up his family.”

She constantly and sophisticatedly sharpens her household members. For her there is no love, no maternal feelings for her children, for her daughter-in-law Katerina. Feelings are corroded by callousness, arbitrariness and pretense. Kabanikha is a “guardian” and protector of the customs and orders of patriarchal antiquity.

N.A. Dobrolyubov writes: “The tyrants of Russian life, however, begin to feel some kind of discontent and fear, without knowing what and why. Everything seems to be fine as before: Dikoy scolds whoever he wants... Kabanova still keeps her children in fear, forces her daughter-in-law to observe all the etiquettes of the old days, eats her like rusty iron, considers herself completely infallible... But everything is somehow restless , it’s not good for them. Besides them, without asking them, another life grew up, with other beginnings.”(From the article “A Ray of Light in a Dark Kingdom” . )

The cruelty of Kabanikha and the tyranny of Dikiy also have vital concrete historical foundations: the more acutely they feel the fragility of their position, the more fiercely they defend their foundations, suppress those who think differently, who inspire at least some suspicion. The main “weapon” of subjugation and suppression is fear. As a norm of life, fear has been elevated to law. Law in the “dark kingdom” and fear are inseparable,you have to be afraid , this is what order is based on.

II. Student reports about the young characters in the play.

Tikhon, Boris, Varvara, Kuligin, Kudryash are “victims” of the “dark kingdom”.

Tikhon - kind, sincerely loves Katerina. Exhausted by Kabanikha’s reproaches and orders, he thinks about how to escape from the house. But submissive to his mother in everything, Tikhon still openly blamed her (!) for the death of his wife. Here are his words after the death of his wife: “Good for you, Katya! Why did I stay alive?...” It’s scary if the living envy the dead.

Boris - a gentle, kind person. He really understands Katerina, but is unable to help her; indecisive, unable to fight for his happiness, Boris chooses the path of humility.

Kuligin - a talented man from the people. His last name is reminiscent of the Nizhny Novgorod inventor Kulibin. He does not enter into a decisive struggle with tyrants, he rather persuades them, convinces them to do something for the common good. The image of the self-taught Kuligin helps to understand the main idea of the play: the idea of the inevitable death of the “dark kingdom.”

Varvara understands the meaninglessness of protest, she lives by the principle: “Do what you want, as long as it’s safe and covered.”DFor Varvara, lying is the norm of life. She ran away from home, but did not submit.

Curly – desperate, boastful, but at the same time capable of sincere feelings. He is worried about Katerina. It is not afraid of its owner. “I am considered a rude person, why is he holding me? Therefore, he needs me. Well, that means I’m not afraid of him, but let him be afraid of me.”

III. Reading and discussion of the continuation of the play “The Thunderstorm” (“What happened to the residents of Kalinov after Katerina’s suicide?”)

Homework A story about Katerina (How does she differ from other characters in the play? Her range of hobbies as a girl. Relationships with Tikhon, Boris, Varvara. Could she find happiness in the family? Under what conditions? Is the death of the heroine a defeat or a victory?)

Life and customsdark kingdom

Cruel morals, sir,

in our city, cruel

A. N. Ostrovsky.

A. N. Ostrovsky is very modern as a truly talented artist. He never shied away from complex and painful issues of society. Ostrovsky is not just a master of drama. This is a very sensitive writer who loves his land, his people, its history. His plays attract people with their amazing moral purity and genuine humanity.

The Thunderstorm is rightfully considered one of the masterpieces of Ostrovsky and all Russian drama. After all, the author himself evaluates it as a creative success.

The Thunderstorm was written in 1859 after Ostrovsky's trip along the Volga. This trip filled the writer with new impressions and gave him the opportunity to get acquainted with the life of the population of the Upper Volga. Later, these impressions were reflected in the transfer of life, customs, and the general atmosphere of the provincial town of Kalinov.

The town is all green. The view is extraordinary. My soul just rejoices! It would seem that everything is fine, but this is only at first glance. The viewer seems to see with his own eyes the beauty of Russian nature. In the scene of the night festivities, in Katerina’s stories, this constitutes the poetic side of life in the city of Kalinov. However, next to poetry, there is another, ugly, repulsive side of Kalinovsky reality. It is revealed in Kuligin’s assessments, felt in the characters’ stories, and sounds in the prophecies of the crazy lady.

Here merchants undermine each other's trade, tyrants mock their households, here all information about other lands is gleaned from the stories of ignorant wanderers. The writer showed a fictional city, but it looks very authentic. He very accurately and vividly reproduces the atmosphere of the patriarchal merchant class, which reeks of mossy, narrow-mindedness, savagery, which does not know the desire for knowledge, interest in the sciences, in socio-political and economic problems

The only enlightened person in the whole city, Kuligin, looks like an eccentric in the eyes of the residents. His completely disinterested desire to do good does not find a single drop of sympathy among the townspeople. Naive, kind, honest, he, in my opinion, does not oppose Kalinov’s little world, humbly endures not only ridicule, but also obvious rudeness. However, it is this weak-willed creature that the author instructs to characterize the dark kingdom

It seems as if Kalinov is fenced off from the rest of the world by a tall fence and lives some kind of special, closed life. Ostrovsky focused on the most important things, showing the wretchedness and savagery of the morals of Russian patriarchal life. I ask myself again and again, why is there no place for anything new, fresh? Probably because this whole life is based solely on familiar, outdated laws, which are obviously completely ridiculous. The dark kingdom tenaciously clings to everything old and established. And this, I think, is a terrible brake on development. This is standing in one place, stagnation. And stagnation is possible only when it is supported by people who have strength and authority. Such are Dikoy and Kabanova.

Although Dikoy is depicted in only 3 scenes, the playwright created a complete image. His name appears even in the exhibition. Look for another scolder like ours, Savel Prokofich! - says Shapkin. A wild typical tyrant, that is, a person who acts purely on his own whim, according to his own arbitrariness, without regard for others. And I completely agree with Dobrolyubov that the tyrant is still trying to prove that no one can tell him and that he will do whatever he wants. Dikoy swaggers over his nephew and all his family, but retreats before those who can fight back. He scolds everyone over whom he feels his power, but if someone scolds him himself, and he cannot answer, then, all your family, hold on! Dikoy will take out all his anger on them. At such hours, people in the Wild’s house hide in the corners, just not to catch the eye of the owner. It seems to me that the reason for this attitude towards people is the consciousness of one’s superiority, and also, complete impunity. So you know that you are a worm. “If I want, I’ll have mercy, if I want, I’ll crush,” says Dikoy. He behaves completely differently with Kabanova, although he is also rude to her out of habit: What are you doing here! What the hell kind of merman is there! However, she quickly tamed him. It is from her that Dikoy seeks peace after having fought at home: Talk to me so that my heart will go away. You're the only one in the whole city who knows how to make me talk. It is obvious that the Wild has traits inherent in the people as a whole. He looks at natural phenomena from a religious perspective, believes that a lightning rod is vanity, and a thunderstorm is sent to us as punishment. Dikoy is not an exception for Kalinov, but the fruit of the entire way of life of Kalinov. He is, in a sense, a child of his city. But the worst thing is that this attitude towards family members, and all disenfranchised Kalinovites, is perceived by everyone as the norm and no deviations are seen in this.

Kabanov is no better. Marfa Ignatievna has a strong and domineering character. She also keeps her boyfriend under her control and in constant fear. However, Kabanikha is lenient towards her daughter Varvara. She knows very well what kind of life Varya will have when she gets married, so she willingly lets her daughter go out with the young people and talks to her in a motherly kind way. Kabanikha is one of the characters who actively drives the action. She takes into account what is accepted, what order requires, and honors traditions and rituals. In her deepest conviction, a wife must submit to her husband and live in fear of him. And she convinces Tikhon that Katerina should be afraid of him. Kabanova not only complies with Domostroevsky norms, but also fights for them. Marfa Ignatievna surrounded herself with ignorant wanderers. She needs them like air, as they support her enormous authority, without which she cannot imagine her existence. And it’s not for nothing that Feklusha says: Blah-alepie, dear, blah-alepie! Wonderful beauty! What can I say! You live in the promised land. And what’s interesting: neither the beauty of marvelous nature nor the charming view of the Volga cause such delight. It glorifies the morals of the city. In the image of Feklusha, the playwright showed not a proud person, of which there were many among the wanderers, but a selfish, ignorant, deceitful nature. The harm of such people is undeniable. The Wanderer talks a lot about unknown lands in which there are unjust orders. And in Kalinov, in her opinion, life is very good. She flatters Kabanikha solely for selfish purposes; wants to be noted in time, to be singled out from among others. In addition, Feklusha protects the interests of Kabanoi, and therefore the entire dark kingdom.

Residents of the city of Kalinov are illiterate. They believe in all sorts of fables, take a thunderstorm, a common natural phenomenon, for God's punishment. And when Kuligin explains this phenomenon to them, people simply do not believe him. The life of the dark kingdom goes on as usual: what happened yesterday will happen tomorrow. Nothing worries them, nothing in the world can disturb the measured flow of their lives. And if it weren’t for the rare rumors running into Kalinov, they would think that everyone in this world lives the way they do.

In the Thunderstorm, according to Goncharov, the picture of national life and morals settled down with unprecedented artistic completeness and fidelity. in this capacity, the play was a passionate challenge to the despotism and ignorance that reigned in pre-reform Russia.

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky, for the first time in Russian literature, deeply and realistically depicted the life and customs of the merchants, and painted colorful images of tyrants. He dared to look behind the iron merchant gates and was not afraid to openly show the “power of inertia,” “numbness.”

The dramatic conflict in “The Thunderstorm” (1860) lies in the clash of the obsolete morality of tyrants with the new morality of people in whose souls a sense of human dignity is awakening. In the play, the background of life itself, the setting itself, are important.

The world of the “dark kingdom”

Based on fear and monetary calculation. Direct financial dependence forces Boris to “be respectful” with the “scold” Dikiy. Tikhon is obediently obedient to his mother, although at the end of the play even he rises to a kind of “rebellion”. Wild Curly's clerk and Tikhon's sister Varvara are cunning and dodgy. Katerina’s discerning heart senses the falseness and inhumanity of the surrounding life: “Yes, everything here seems to be from under captivity.”

The images of tyrants in “The Thunderstorm” are complex, they lack psychological clarity. Dikoy is a rich merchant, a significant person in the city of Kalinov. Authorities

At first glance, nothing threatens him. Savel Prokofievich, according to Kudryash’s apt definition, “as if he had broken free from a chain, he feels like the master of life and the arbiter of the destinies of the people under his control.” Isn’t this what Dikiy’s attitude towards Boris speaks about? Those around him are afraid to anger Savel Prokofievich with something, his wife is in awe of him.

At the same time, as already mentioned, the image of the Wild is quite complex. The tough character of a “significant person in the city” encounters not some kind of external protest, but internal self-condemnation. Savel Prokofievich himself is not happy with his “heart,” and this is a terrible meaning for the foundations of the “dark kingdom”: tyranny is so unnatural and inhuman that it becomes obsolete and loses any moral justification for its existence.

The rich merchant Kabanova can also be called a “tyrant in a skirt.” In a conversation with her son and daughter-in-law, Kabanikha hypocritically sighs: “Oh, a grave sin! How long will it take to sin!” Behind these feigned exclamations lies a domineering, despotic character. Marfa Ignatievna actively defends the foundations of the “dark kingdom”, trying to subjugate them to the deadening power of Tikhon and Katerina. Relations between people in the family should, according to Kabanova, be regulated by the law of fear. Marfa Ignatievna’s desire to follow previous traditions in everything is manifested in the scene of Tikhon’s farewell to Katerina.

The image of the wanderer Feklusha plays a significant role in Ostrovsky’s play. At first glance, we have a minor character. In fact, Feklusha is a peacemaker and defender of the “dark kingdom”. The meaning of her reasoning about “Saltan Makhnut Persian” and “Saltan Magnut Turkish” is that we have a “righteous law.”

Feklusha foresees the death of the “dark kingdom.” She sees the ominous specter of the end in the acceleration of time. And indeed, time works against the “dark kingdom”.

Ostrovsky comes to large-scale artistic generalizations in the play and creates almost symbolic images. The author’s remark at the beginning of the fourth act of the play is noteworthy: “In the foreground is a narrow gallery with the arches of an ancient building that is beginning to collapse. “It is in this dilapidated world, from its very depths that Katerina’s confession sounds. The fate of the heroine is so tragic primarily because she rebelled against her own Domostroevsky ideas about good and evil. The ending of the play tells us that living in the “dark kingdom” is worse than death” (Dobrolyubov).

The need to awaken man in man, the rehabilitation of living human feeling that replaces false asceticism, constitutes, it seems to me, the enduring merit of Ostrovsky’s play. And today it helps to overcome the power of “inertia”, “numbness”.

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Reading Ostrovsky's works, we involuntarily find ourselves in the atmosphere that reigns in a given society, and become direct participants in the events that take place on stage. We merge with the crowd and, as if from the outside, observe the lives of the heroes.

So, finding ourselves in the Volga city of Kalinov, we can observe the life and customs of its inhabitants. The bulk of the population consists of merchants, whose life was shown with such skill and knowledge by the playwright in his plays. It is this “dark kingdom” that rules the roost in such quiet provincial Volga cities as Kalinov.

Let's get acquainted with representatives of this society. At the very beginning of the work, we learn about Diky, a “significant person” in the city, a merchant. This is how Shapkin says about him: “We should look for another scolder like ours, Savel Prokofich. There’s no way he’ll cut someone off.” Immediately we hear about Kabanikha and understand that he and Dikiy are “birds of a feather.”

“The view is unusual! Beauty! The soul rejoices,” exclaims Kuligin, but against the backdrop of this beautiful landscape a bleak picture of life is painted, which appears before us in “The Thunderstorm”. It is Kuligin who gives an accurate and clear description of the life, morals and customs that reign in the city of Kalinov. He is one of the few who is aware of the atmosphere that has developed in the city. He speaks directly about the lack of education and ignorance of the masses, about the impossibility of earning money through honest work, of becoming a people from under the bondage of noble and important persons in the city. They live far from civilization and do not really strive for it. Preservation of old foundations, fear of everything new, the absence of any law and the rule of force - this is the law and norm of their life, this is what these people live and are content with. They subjugate everyone who surrounds them, suppress any protest, any manifestation of personality.

Ostrovsky shows us typical representatives of this society - Kabanikha and Wild. These individuals occupy a special position in society, they are feared and therefore respected, they have capital, and therefore power. There are no general laws for them; they created their own and force others to live in accordance with them. They strive to subjugate those who are weaker and “butter up” those who are stronger. They are despots both in life and in the family. We see this unquestioning submission of Tikhon to his mother, and Boris to his uncle. But if Kabanikha scolds “under the guise of piety,” then Dikoy scolds as if “he’s broken free from his chain.” Neither one nor the other wants to recognize anything new, but wants to live according to house-building orders. Their ignorance, combined with stinginess, makes us not only laugh, but also smile bitterly. Let us remember Dikiy’s reasoning: “What kind of electricity is there!.. A thunderstorm is sent to us as punishment, so that we can feel it, but you want to defend yourself, God forgive me, with poles and some kind of rods.”

We are amazed by their callousness towards people dependent on them, their reluctance to part with money, and to deceive in settlements with workers. Let us remember what Dikoy says: “Once I was fasting about fasting, about a great fast, and then it’s not easy and you slip a little man in; I came for money, carried firewood... I did sin: I scolded him, I scolded him like that... I almost killed him.”

These rulers also have those who unwittingly help them exercise their dominance. This is Tikhon, who with his silence and weakness of will only helps to strengthen his mother’s power. This includes Felusha, an uneducated, stupid writer of all sorts of fables about the civilized world, and these are the townspeople who live in this city and have come to terms with such orders. All of them together are the “dark kingdom” that is presented in the play.

Ostrovsky, using various artistic means, showed us a typical provincial city with its customs and morals, a city where arbitrariness, violence, complete ignorance reign, where any manifestation of freedom, freedom of spirit is suppressed.